


Sweet Release

by KestrelGirl



Series: The Wasp-Eyed Girl [3]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Character Death, Eye Trauma, Gen, Graphic Description, Illustrations, Insanity, Short, Sylvari (Guild Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:55:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22258306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KestrelGirl/pseuds/KestrelGirl
Summary: Neasa dies happy.
Series: The Wasp-Eyed Girl [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645510
Kudos: 2





	Sweet Release

“We can’t save her without making her even more of a risk to us. Ending her life early would be pointless. Her time is soon, and we can study her after she’s gone. Suffering is necessary, for it makes us grow stronger, but this much of it must never happen again. It would be best to let her live out her last few days.”

_We will… be… together?_

Neasa’s Nightmare Court village has been curiously observing her descent into madness over the past year. The poor sapling’s initiation into the Court had gone disastrously wrong, and wasp galls had grown over her eyes, driving her mad _and_ blind as the larvae fed on anything they could find inside her head.

_More colors today. Brighter. Glittering pain. You are growing… nearly ready._

In an unusual display of mercy, the Court has allowed her to stay in a comfortable little hut to live out her days in peace. She spends most of her time curled up in a ball rather than using any of the amenities, rocking and singing to herself as her mind deteriorates.

_Hush, little darlings, don’t say a word…_

__

The galls are so big that Neasa hasn’t been able to close her eyes in weeks. Not that she needs to, as by now she’s completely blind. Sometimes, when she bends down, they look like they’d almost fall out of her eye sockets.

_… What are these? No. Don’t need. Let us come. Let us come out… let the sprouts come out, and be born again…_

* * *

_What is… no… no… oh… yes. YES._

The end comes swiftly. In the middle of her second night in the hut, she wakes up and screams in pain.

“Baroness! Get to Neasa’s hut. It’s time.”

The courtiers arrive not a moment too soon.

The look of anguish fades, and an indelible, terrifying grin spreads across Neasa’s face as she sings.

_Little worms, little worms, grown inside of me…_

_Little wasps, pretty wasps, let us all be free…_

__

Her voice quiets to a whisper as she sings the last few words. Her eyes are shuddering, and pulsing more violently than they ever have. And by the human gods, they’re buzzing.

_Yes… so beautiful…_

Her last words are nearly drowned out by the humming inside her head.

The galls darken, as if there is a cloud behind them. Then they jerk, with a force that stretches their translucent walls and carries her entire head forward. The buzzing crescendos. And then, they burst open.

Sap and Nightmare-knows-what-else run down Neasa’s face as the wasps pour out. There’s enough of them to make everyone present shield themselves, lest they suffer her fate. A terrific noise, the sound of hundreds of little wings, fills the hut and spreads through the village. From the courtiers, however, there is only a stunned silence.

Then, still smiling, she collapses. The baroness can hear the trickle of fluid inside her skull. There must have been only the necessities of life left inside by the time the wasps were through with her.

“She’s gone.”


End file.
